Armenia Tree Project Keeps Growing
By Christopher Loh

Watertown Tab, p. 3
January 20, 2006

On the fourth floor of the Armenian Museum and Library of America sits the poverty-fighting office of the Armenia Tree Project.

In 1994, Carolyn Mugar founded the ATP in response to the deforestation of Armenia.

In the early 1990s, an energy blockade suffered by the country as a result of conflicts in neighboring Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia caused people to turn to their surroundings for sources of fuel ... and they turned to the forest.

To date, 20 years of active deforestation has resulted in the reduction of forest coverage from 15 percent to approximately 6 percent in Armenia.

In broader terms, at the turn of the 21st century, tree coverage in Armenia was 25 percent of what it was before in the 1970s.

As the pipelines were shut down, regular maintenance was not performed, making them unusable when the blockade ended. Therefore, Armenia remains in an energy crisis, cutting nearly 750,000 cubic meters of forest each year.

ATP Director of Operations Vache Kirakosyan and Deputy Country Director Mher Sadoyan both hold their offices in Yerevan, Armenia, but were in Watertown this past week for board meetings.

In their voices, it was immediately apparent the ATP is not just about an environmental issue, it is about the livelihood of a nation.

Kirakosyan said the ATP is working on many different projects, including Backyard Nurseries, in which the ATP provides villagers with tree seedlings to plant and harvest.
ATP officials then pay the villagers for the seedlings they harvest.

The program, in general, helps fuel the struggling Armenian economy by doubling a villager's income, which on average is approximately $240 annually.

ATP officials are fueled not only by the small economic progress they help Armenia to make, but a jump in the amount of trees planted.

According to Sadoyan, since its founding, the ATP average annual coverage for planting trees was 50,000 trees; 2005 yielded 170,000 trees. The jump is due to many of the programs such as Backyard Nurseries.

The ATP also helps villagers to plant fruit trees bearing apples, apricots, cherries, plums and other assorted fruits.

"Some use these as the necessary nutritional supplements," Kirakosyan said.

"Last year, 117,000 kilograms of fruit was produced," [Sadoyan] said.

The villagers will also sell the fruit, once again helping to jump-start the Armenian economy.

One community sold so much fruit, according to Sadoyan, that it bought a bus to transport its workers to the nurseries.

"We're also active in the advocacy of protecting forests," Kirakosyan said.

Armenia's famed Shikahogh Forest has not been deforested in hundreds of years and thanks to the work of the ATP, it won't ever be.

According to Kirakosyan, the Armenian government planned on laying a road through the forest, but various organizations joined with the ATP to stop it from doing so.

"There are endangered Persian leopards in the forest," [Sadoyan] said.

"There is also farmer assistance where we teach them modern techniques, including rotational grazing," Kirakosyan said which helps farmers prevent their cattle from grazing in the forest.

ATP officials hope an educational program concerning the effects of deforestation, now being tested as part of the national curriculum by the Armenian government, will be approved.

The officials think the program will help to prevent deforestation in the future.

The cooperation the ATP is receiving from the Armenian government regarding the educational program, both Kirakosyan and Sadoyan said, should remain when the ATP looks to lease more land for its growing and increasing nurseries.

Sadoyan said as with any government process there is always difficulty, but he remains optimistic.

"There is an enormous amount of work still to be done," Kirakosyan said. "Our lives are not enough to get it done."

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